Father's Day
by PerditaAlottachocolate
Summary: When Gabriel returns home after a trip, he finds the mansion quiet and empty. He investigates with Nooroo's help, but the results are going to be painful... Days of Gabriel Agreste (Gabriel Appreciation Week, Day 1)


_Author's Note: Welcome to Gabriel Appreciation Week. I'm so glad we have one! Expect prompt for each day from me!_

 _First let's have some humor/fluff with a bonus of trashing Gabe a bit ;)_

 _As always, a great thank you to Remasa who brainstormed with me and beta read it so that your eyes wouldn't hurt too much._

 _Check her stories for GAW, she's written for every prompt too!_

 _Enjoy!_

* * *

 **"Days of Gabriel Agreste" Day 1: "Father's Day"**

The door closed with a soft click behind his back. Gabriel crossed the hall, his footsteps echoing in the cavernous foyer of the Agreste mansion. The house was quiet, too quiet for this time of day. No sign of Gorilla or Nathalie, not a squeak from other staff. He checked in his study, but found the door locked, while he had left the key in the bedroom before his trip. The dining room was empty. No sounds were coming from upper level either. This was uncanny. Even though Adrien usually tried to keep quiet, there was always some background noise, either from the tv set, his games or piano practise, audible in the hall. None of that this time.

This definitely wasn't the welcome he was counting on coming back after two weeks of absence, and on Father's Day nonetheless. He might not have been the Father of the Year, but not even once had Adrien forgotten about this holiday.

 _Not. Even. Once._

That meant something was wrong. Very, very wrong. Shivers climbed down his spine, and a ball of anxiety settled in the pit of his stomach. He loosened his tie as it suddenly became hard to breathe. Had he been gone too long? Had it been a mistake to leave the safety of the house to Nathalie and Gorilla?

'What is it, Master?' He heard Nooroo's tiny voice from the inner pocket of his jacket. Two worried violet eyes bored into him questioningly. 'Your heartbeat quickened.'

'Something bad has happened,' Gabriel hissed through gritted teeth, pressing his back against a column to hide from the view of possible intruders. 'Be ready to transform me.'

'I'm always ready, Master.' The little kwami tilted his head in confusion. 'That's the default state of being a kwami.'

'Good.'

'But is it wise to transform when we don't know what's going on?' Nooroo supplied, now shivering slightly. Gabriel already knew that kwamis were very responsive to their charges' emotions. The little butterfly must have picked up on his own fear.

'Well, do you have any other ideas?' the man quirked a brow and set his jaw. 'Nooroo, dark wi-'

'MaybeIcoulddoaquicksearchbymyself?' the violet sprite sputtered.

'What?'

'I can phase to higher levels without being seen,' Nooroo continued at a slower pace, 'I could check if there's anyone else in the house?' he volunteered.

'Hmmmm,' Gabriel rubbed his chin. The lack of any sounds might indicate that whatever threat was waiting for them, it was lying low. Would the intruders expect a kwami to show up? Possibly. Would Nooroo be less visible than a really tall man dressed in red pants and a white jacket? Definitely. 'Okay. You have five minutes and if you don't find anything I'm transforming and inspecting myself.'

Nooroo gave him a slight nod and phased through the nearest wall. Gabriel leaned against the pillar and tried to calm his heart rate, which proved to be a utterly useless task as ten minutes later he was sneaking by himself up the empty stairs, his pulse astronomical.

His violet companion never came back, despite Gabriel's frantic whispering and cursing under his breath. He even risked uttering the transformation spell, but nothing happened. He had to consider Nooroo MIA and face the fact that he had stupidly lost his superpowers by taking his kwami's advice.

Armed only with a commemorative letter opener, the designer tiptoed to check the main bedroom and guest rooms, expecting a possible ambush from that direction. When those turned out to be as quiet, calm and as empty as the rest of the house, with his heart in his mouth he headed back to Adrien's room.

What he found was a mess hitherto unseen in his son's chambers. The bed was empty of all bedding - the sheets and pillows thrown to the couch. The window was opened and the wind knocked over a pile of magazines or comics or whatever picture books Adrien pretended to read, and scattered them on the floor. The desk chair was overturned, as if Adrien had been in a hurry getting up from it.

Gabriel didn't look further, as the blood roared in his ears to his thunderous heartbeat and his vision blurred.

It was already over.

He came too late.

The letter opener clattered to the floor as the man raised his hands to his head and clutched at his hair. The heavy tread of his footsteps followed him to the couch, where he dropped - resigned and despaired.

And that was when the couch attacked him.

The pillows and blankets erupted around him and caught him in a vise-like grip.

'Cuddle trap!' a voice cried by his ear and suddenly he found himself embraced by numerous limbs.

Gabriel released a strangled choke when all air was knocked out of him and as he was slipping into unconsciousness the last thing he remembered were the colorful eyes watching him with rising worry. Some of them were green, some red and some violet.

* * *

'I told you this was a bad idea!' When Gabriel came around, first thing he heard was Duusu's wail of complain. 'Has he always been this pale? It's not a natural color!'

'Oh, just shut up, Dus!' And that was definitely Plagg's irked hiss.

'Why wouldn't you just let me go,' he would recognize Nooroo's small squeak anywhere. 'It's all your fault, Plagg!'

'All the kwamis out! I can't hear my own thoughts!' An extremely vexed woman bellowed from somewhere behind him. 'Just give him some air!' Was this Adele? It sure sounded like her, when anger and anxiety fought for dominance in her voice.

'I think he's waking up, Mom!' Ah, and that was his son. What a happy reunion.

Gabriel decided to open his eyes just in time to see the three kwamis gasp and fly to hide, while two blond heads appeared in his view. Two sets of emeralds looked extremely apologetic, if anyone would bother to ask him. He might have snorted at the sight, had he been feeling a bit better.

'Are you all right, darling?' Adele asked, gently stroking his cheek.

'Father?' Adrien supplied, nervously stepping from one foot to the other.

The older Agreste rolled his eyes and sighed dramatically. 'Well,' he drawled, fighting off an amused smirk, 'I never would have thought you'd give me a heart attack for Father's Day.'

* * *

 _AN:_ _Let me remind you this author really appreciates your kudos and comments. They are my main motivation for writing. I'd love to hear what you think, even if it's just enthusiastic key smashing :)_

 _Check out my other stories (there are a few featuring Gabe!) and visit me on_ _tumblr_ _(perditaalottachocolate-blog). I tend to post sneak peeks of the stories I'm working on and share mostly miraculous content._

 _EDIT: I forgot to mention this story belongs to a happy universe of "The Mistletoe Ball" (one of my Christmas fics) and "No One Mourns a Villain" by Remasa (this story explains how Mama Agreste is back and everyone knows about each other)._


End file.
